First published in 1953, “To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting” is the famous and influential guide to acting by Russian-American actor, director, and teacher Michael Chekhov. Born in Saint Petersburg in 1891 and the nephew of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Michael Chekhov studied acting from the famed theater director Konstantin Stanislavski at the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and was considered by Stanislavski to be his most brilliant student. While Chekhov was at first ...

Michael Chekhov's classic work To the Actor has been revised and expanded by Mala Powers to explain, clearly and concisely, the essential techniques for every actor from developing a character to strengthen awareness.Chekhov's simple and practical method – successfully used by professional actors all over the world – trains the actor's imagination and body to fulfill its potential.To the Actor includes a previously unpublished chapter on 'Psychological Ges...

This is the first English translation of Michael Chekhov’s two-volume autobiography, combining The Path of the Actor (1927) and extensive extracts from his later volume Life and Encounters.Full of illuminating anecdotes and insightful observations involving prominent characters from the MAT and the European theatre of the early twentieth century, Chekhov takes us through events in his acting career and personal life, from his childhood in St. Petersburg until his ...

In the early 1930s, during his first years of exile and 20 years before the publication of his seminal work To the Actor, Michael Chekhov made his first incursion into the challenging task of writing about an actor's experience and his vision of the craft.This important, though largely forgotten, work (the so-called 'Paris Manuscript') was handwritten in German and in it we find Chekhov laying the groundwork for the canon of exercises and practices that, n...

Because Chekhov’s plays convey the universally recognizable, sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic, frustrations of decent people trying to make sense of their lives, they remain as fresh and vigorous as when they were written a century ago. Gathered here in superb new renderings by one of the most highly regarded translators of our time—versions that have been staged throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain—are Chekhov’s four essential masterpieces for the theater.

A selection of stories to entertain for when you have a spare 10 minutes, including "After the Race", by James Joyce; "Three Questions", by Leo Tolstoy; "The Child's Story", by Charles Dickens; and "A Transgression", by Anton Chekhov, read by Sir Michael Redgrave.

Comprising four one-act comic vaudevilles and four short stories adapted for the stage by Michael Frayn, The Sneeze introduces readers to a less familiar selection of work by one of the greatest precursors of modern drama.First published in 1989, this reissue includes The Sneeze; The Alien Corn; The Bear; The Evils of Tobacco; The Inspector-General; Swan Song; The Prospect, and Plots.Michael Fr...

Oh, Misha, it's terrible to be an educated woman. An educated woman with nothing to do. What am I here for? Why am I alive? They should make me a professor somewhere, or a director of something ... If I were a diplomat I'd turn the whole world upside down ... An educated woman ... And nothing to do.Village schoolmaster Mikhail Vasilyevich has it all: wit, intelligence, a comfortable and respectable life in provincial Russia, and the attentions of four beautiful women - one...

'Frayn's translation, which strikes me as splendidly lucid and alive . . . will be acted again and again' New StatesmanIn Chekhov's tragi-comedy - perhaps his most popular play - the Gayev family is torn by powerful forces deeply rooted in history and the society in which they live. Their estate is hopelessly in debt: urged to cut down their beautiful cherry orchard and sell the land for holiday cottages, they struggle to act decisively.Originally published to coin...

"The Bet" is an 1889 short story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other following a conversation about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The banker wagers that the lawyer cannot remain in solitary confinement voluntarily for a period of fifteen years.

Three short stories by the masterful Chekhov, a pioneer of stream-of-consciousness writing. A vintage recording by renowned actor Michael Redgrave.

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...